TLbc *Clnix>crB(t^ of Cbtcago 



DATE CULTURE IN ANCIENT 
BABYLONIA 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES 
IN THE GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL 



BY 

AUGUST HENRY PRUESSNER 



Private Edition, Distributed By 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



Reprinted from 

The American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 

Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, April 1920 



Zbc Tnntverslts of Cblcago 



DATE CULTURE IN ANCIENT 
BABYLONIA 



A DISSERTATION 

SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY 

OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE 

IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF 

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY 

DEPARTMENT OF ORIENTAL LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES 
IN THE GRADUATE DIVINITY SCHOOL 



BY 

AUGUST HENRY PRUESSNER 



Private Edition, Distributed By 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 

Reprinted from 

The Auekican Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures 

Vol. XXXVI, No. 3, April 1920 



©ift 

University 

JUL a oug 



^^r 



DATE CULTURE IN ANCIENT BABYLONIA 

By a. H. Prdessneb 
FreoiJort. Illinois 

In the Revue dWssyriologie of 1913, V. Scheil called attention 
to the importance of the (iate-pahn culture for ancient Babylonia, 
and to the comparatively high state of perfection which it had 
attained.^ His remarks were based on a tablet of his own, coming 
from Umma, and a fragment of another from Nippur.^ From these 
documents he draws the following conclusions: 

1. That there existed as early as 2400 b.c. in the Tigris-Euplirates 
Delta large date-palm orchards of many hectares in extent; 

2. That the size of orchards was readily estimated, not by the 
usual field measurements, but by the number of trees in it; 

3. That artificial fecundation of the female date tree was em- 
ployed, and that male trees were grown apart; 

4. That the estimation of the produce was made according to 
•series of trees of practically equal bearing ability, and instead of 
weight, volume measure was employed; 

5. That the maximum yield per tree went as high as 300 ka 
(105 kilograms, or 141 liters); 

6. That accounts in this matter were kept with rigor and pre- 
ciseness, according to the most rational proceeding-. 

Since the publication of this short article of Scheil's the subject 
has received, at least as far as the writer was able to ascertain from 
the bibliographies at his disposal, no further treatment from Assj'ri- 
ologists. It certainly does not seem out of place to gather together 
the facts concerning date culture from the various documents now 
at our disposal in an attempt to gain a better understanding of this 
important factor in the economic life of the early inhabitants of the 
Alesopotamian Delta. 

' Dc rcxploilalion ite 'IntlUrs dans Vanciennt Babijlonie. 
'■ Published by Myrhman in BE. Ill, 63. 

•213 



214 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

The writer in undertaking this task is well aware of the disaci- 
vantage at which he is placed by not having any practical, personal 
experience in date culture as it is carried on today in those regions. 
Fortunately there are at his disposal two excellent modern authorities, 
namely, the reports of two experts of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, one' having been sent to Algiers' and the other to 
southern Mesopotamia- to make a thorough study of the subject in 
question at these two most prominent centers of date growing of 
our days. These two reports contain a wealth of facts, given in clear, 
simple language, while their usefulness is still further enhanced by a 
large number of beautiful half-tone illustrations from actual photo- 
graphs. With these modern authorities as our guides, we shall now 
set out on a trip of inspection through the palm groves of ancient 
Sumer and Akkad. 

Today the center of the most extensive date-palm plantations in 
the world is found in the district of Bassorah and Mohammerah 
along the banks of the Shatt-el-Arab. Travelers entering Meso- 
potamia from the Persian Gulf by way of this river marvel at the 
seemingly endless forest of palms, which is estimated to contain some 
five million trees. The predominance of date culture in this region 
is due to the fact that the most favorable conditions for the growth 
of this palm are found here in a happy combination. According to an 
old Arab saying the date palm will flourish best with her foot in water 
and her head in hell, and this prerequisite is remarkably well fulfilled 
in lower Mesopotamia. The summer heat is terrific, and because of 
the humidity of the air due to the palm groves, which give off a 
great deal of moisture, very oppressive, and for Europeans almost 
unbearable. According to Dr. S. M. Zwemer at Bahrein the ther- 
mometer remains for many days and nights above 100° F. from May 
to September, while for the Shatt-el-Arab as high as 124° in the shade 
has been recorded. Hand in hand with this climatic condition, so 
desirable for date growing, goes the ease with which irrigation is 

1 Walter T. Swingle, Thi- Date Palm and Its Utilizutian in the Solilbwe-ftem Slale^i, 
U.S. Department of Agriculture. Bureau of Plant Industry. Bulletin 53. 

2 David Cr. Pairchild. Persian Gulf Dates and Their Introduction into America, 
Bulletin 54. 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 215 

accomplished.' The banks of the river are so low that the Arabs, 
while sitting on them can wash their hands in the flood. The 
influence of the tides of the Persian Gulf reaches far up into the 
channels of the Euphrates and Tigris. At Bassorah the high tide 
raises the river about six feet above its low level, and thus twice 
daily the countless canals and irrigation ditches are filled with the 
warm water from the river. No power of any kind is needed for 
this tidal irrigation, except for the task of keeping open the channels.' 
Also the demand for a slightly alkaline soil is satisfied throughout 
the delta of the "two rivers." 

At the period with whicli we are concerned most of the region 
described above was probably still covered with swamps and lakes. 
The °*™Maratti, a broad estuary formiqg the mouth of the "two 
rivers" reached in all probability northward to the region of Ur and 
Eridu, while eastward the Susiana marshes stretched toward Elam. 
Sumer, the ancient center of date growing in the south, extended 
from Eridu northward along the banks of the present Shatt-el-Hai, 
which was then the main channel of the Tigris. The conditions in 
this region were without doubt just as favorable as they are today 
in the Bassorah district. That the ideal free-flow irrigation was 
possible here, we have by authority of Sir W. Willcocks.* Besides 
Sumer in the south, Akkad in the north of the delta had its date 
culture. .' Even today palm groves of considerable extent are found 
around Bagdad, and at Hillah on the Euphrates. The summer 
heat is here practically the same as farther south, and irrigation was 
made easy in the days of Babylonia's glory through proper regulation 
and distribution of the waters of the Euphrates during the flood 
season, which lasts throughout the summer until September. The 
rather large space devoted to the subject of date culture in the 
Code of Hammurabi testifies to the important position which it 
occupied in the agricultural life of his empire. For a later time we 
have the- testimony of Greek travelers in regard to the wealth of 
Babylonia in date palms; Herodotus informs us that palm trees 
grew in great numbers over the whole of the flat country. 

' Fairchild. op. cit.. p. 10. ^ Ibid., p. 14. 

' Sir William Willcocks. From the Garden of Eden to the C'rosalnfj of the Jordan, p. 3. 



216 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

SECTION I 

THE PLANTING OF A DATE ORCHARD 

The date palm propagates its kind in two ways: from seeds and 
by offshoots from the roots of the parent tree. It has been found, 
however, that the fruits of trees grown from seeds exhibit marks of 
deterioration from the original kind. For this reason the tree is 
propagated in all imj^ortant date-growing regions by transplanting 
the offshoots, which reproduce exactly the parent variety of dates. 
Such offshoots are produced very abundantly by young date palms, 
but care should be taken never to let more than four grow at the 
same time, since otherwise the gro-\vth of the palm would be unfavor- 
ably affected. Just as soon as their sex can be recognized they 
are removed and transplanted. 

It is very important that the offshoots be planted high enough so that 
the growing bud in the center is never in danger of being covered with water 
when irrigated. In order to force the offshoots to take roots and grow the 
chief requisite is that the ground be kept constantly wet about their bases. 
If the young plants dry out once they are lost, for the deUcate new roots 
that are just forming will be killed. The Arabs water the offshoots every 
day for the first forty days after planting and then twice a week until winter; 
after which they are watered as often as may be necessary to keep the ground 
thoroughly moist.' 

The young plants must also be protected against cold the first 
winter after they are set out. Under favorable conditions these 
offshoots begin to bear fruit the third or fourth year after trans- 
planting. 

Having obtained this necessary information concerning the 
requirements for planting a new, or enlarging an existing, date 
orchard, let us turn to the documents from ancient Babjdonia that 
have any bearing on our subject. The safest way will be to consult 
the law of the land first, namely the Code of Hammurabi. Four 
paragraphs (60-63 incl.) are devoted to questions regarding the 
planting of date orchards. 

§ 60 : If a man give out a field to a gardener for the purpose of planting 
a date orchard, the gardener shall plant the orchard; four years he shall take 

' Swingle, op. cit., p. 21. 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 217 

care of the orchard, in the fifth year the owner of the orcliard and the gardener 
shall divide equally (the produce of the orchard) ; the owner of the grove 
shall choose his share and take it. 

In this paragraph the great king assumes the case, that a Baby- 
lonian landlord intrusts to somebody a piece of land to have it con- 
verted into a palm grove. The offshoots, no doubt, can be procured 
on the landlord's estate, but the gardener will have to do the trans- 
planting. For three years he will have to take care of the young 
palms in the manner described above. In the fourth year, when 
for the first time a goodly produce could be expected, the owner and 
the planter were to divide it equally, the owner having the right of 
first choice. At first sight this remuneration for three years' work 
seems to be rather meager, a consideration which has led Dr. Kohler 
to the opinion that this paragraph gave to the gardener legal title 
to one-half of the orchard which he planted.' This view is, of 
course, erroneous. The planter got his pay for the years during which 
he took care of the unproductive young palms from the so-called 
secondary cultures between the trees. A large percentage of the 
surface could be sown to good advantage with grain, sesame, millet, 
or clover. The crop thus produced was evidently at the disposal 
of the laborer, since no provision whatever is made in regard to it. 
To this was added in the fourth year one-half of the yield of dates 
from the grove. 

§61: If tiie gardener does not complete the planting, but leaves an 
empty space, that empty space shall be assigned to his share. 

The import of this provision is very clear. It is to furnish the 
planter with an incentive to do his duty, and to keep him from loiter- 
ing. Naturally, since the owner was to select his share first, the 
empty space would remain for the negligent gardener. 

§ 62; If he do not jilant the field entrusted to him, then in case it is a 
grain field, the gardener shall pay rent to the owner of the field, for the years 
during which he has neglected it, on the basis of adjacent fields, and after he 
has prejjared the field for cultivation, he shall return it to its owner. 

' Kohler und Peiser. Hammurabis Gesetz, pp. 112-i:i: " Bl'i dor Datteipanht fiiKlea 
sioh noch besondere interessante V'etlialtnisse: der Eigner iilx'rliisst dem Laiidmanii 
ein Gelande zur Uattclbepflanzung; die Pflanzuiig daucrt -4 .lahrc: im ."i. .lahrc Iritt als 
Belohming fiir die Arbeit Miteigentiim am Grundstiick cin, und der Arheiter wird Eigen- 
tiinisgenosse, wohei dep bisherige Eigner das Reclit hat seinen Teil auszuwiilileii. § 00." 



218 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

This paragraph provides redress against a flagrant neglect of 
duty on the part of the planter. He has not only failed to plant 
the orchard, but has also allowed the productive field to deteriorate. 
In such a case the Code stipulated that the neglectful planter must 
pay to the owner the rate of rent common for such lands. Estima- 
tion of the yield was made on the basis of that of adjacent fields. 
Besides paying this rent he had to return the field in a condition fit 
for immediate cultivation. Should the neglect prove to be serious 
it might entail for the planter two years of hard work to reclaim 
(pitu) the field. During this time little produce could be expected, 
yet the owner demanded the pay of the full legal rate of rent. Cer- 
tainly, any planter could ill afford the luxuiy of loafing when he 
undertook to plant a date orchard for a Babylonian landlord. 

§ 63: In case the field was unreclaimed, he shall prepare it for cultiva- 
tion and return it to the owner of the field, and per IS gan he shall pay 
10 gur of grain for one year. 

The case assumed here is like that of § 62, with the exception 
that the field in question had been an unreclaimed tract of land. In 
this case the task technically called tcptitum was imposed upon 
the planter, i.e., he had to convert the unreclaimed field into produc- 
tive land, and pay full rent for one year. 

From these provisions of the Code respecting the planting of date 
orchards we may safely infer that the young trees planted were 
exclusively offshoots from parent trees, otherwise a date harvest 
could not have been expected from them for the fourth year. Seed- 
lings require from 8-15 years before they produce fruit. Turning 
now to the contract literature to illustrate the Code with sample 
cases from actual life we find a great scarcity of material. There 
is only one tablet which has reference to the planting or rather 
enlarging of a date grove, namely : 

VS, VIP' (Dilbat) 

TRANSLITERATION 

1. '^" KirUm ma-la ba-z[u-ii] 

2. '^"kiri ^'"samas-tiu-ur-ma-tim 

3. itti ''" samas-mu-iir-ma-tim 

4. lugal Gis-Sar-E 

5. '"■ ''" marduk-na-si-ir 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 219 

6. mar hu-za-lum 

7. Nam . Gal . Kid . Kid . A 

8. Nam . Mu . /// *"'" 

9. lb . Ta . E . A 

10. Mu III *<"" i-ka-al-ma 
"ll. ''1^ kiram u-na-pa-as 

12. ''" kirdm za-ka-am 

13. a-na be-li-su 

14. Gur . Ru . Dam 

TRANSLATION 

A date orchard, as much as there is, the orchard of Sama§-nflr-mdtini, 
from Samas-nur-matim, the owner of the orchard, Marduk-najir, son of 
Huzalum, lias rented for three years, for the purpose of enlarging it. 

While he has use of the orchard for three years, he shall enlarge it, and 
return it in good condition to its owner. 

Two witnesses, and the date: Sixth Simaiunn, fifth year of Samsu-iluna. 



Line 4: Semitic equivalent = 6('Z '^"Kirim. 

Line 7: literally, "for making wide"; Semitic equivalent given in line 11. 

Line 12: hterally, "a clean orchard." 

Line 14: Semitic = w-to-o-ar. 

Samas-nur-matim rents out an already existing palm grove to 
Marduk-nasir to have it enlarged. The latter shall have usufru('t 
of the orchard for three years, while he is planting and taking care of 
the j'oung palms. The provision of § 65 of the Code, that planter 
and owner shall divide the produce of the planted orchard during the 
fourth year, does not apply here since the renter has been remunerated 
for the work performed liy the produce of the existing part of the 
orchard. 

Another question that should be treated before dosing this sec- 
tion pertains to the distance that the trees should be planted apart. 
Mr. Swingle tells us that the Arabs have been in the habit of placing 
them very close together. The first French colonists in Algeria 
followed this custom and jilanted the trees about 20 feet apart. 
Similar conditions must prevail in the Bassorah district, where, 
according to Mr. Fairchild, as many as 100 trees are. planted on a 
"djerib," the latter being a little less than an acre. The French 
colonists have, however, discovered that far better results are 



220 The Ameeican Journal of Semitic Languages 

obtained' if a much wider space is left between the trees. They 
now place them from 26 to 33 feet apart. With a distance of 26 feet 
between the trees about sixty can be planted to an acre. To arrive 
at a conclusion concerning the habits of the ancient Babylonians 
in this respect is well-nigh impossible. Their contracts and other 
documents either state the size of the orchards by the field measure- 
ments in use without reference to the number of trees on it, or else 
they give the number of trees on a certain lot without expressing 
its size in units of square measure. There is a single document which 
enables us to make some comparisons: 

VS, XIIPO and 70a (Senkereh) 

TRANSLITERATION 

1. 5 gan+20 sar ^^'^kiriivi 

2. lib-ba 25 ">"■ gisimmari 

3. ita '«"fciVi a-pil-i-li-su 

4. "^ i-li-i-di-nam 

5. u nu-ur-'^^^ Kab-ta 

6. ''" kir-Qm e-ie-e^p^-''" iUar 

7. itti e-te-el-pi-''" istar 

8. lugal Gis . Sar . E 

9. '" a-pil-i-li-su 

10. In . Si . Sam 

11. 65 siklu kaspim 

12. Sam . Ti . La . Bi . Su 
1. Ill . Na . An . Lai 

TRANSL.VTION 

Seventy sars of date orchards, in it 25 date palms, by the side of the 
orchards of Apil-ilisu, Ili-idinam, and Nilr-Kabta, the orchard of Etel-pi- 
Istar, from Etel-pi-Istar, owner of the orchard Apil-ilisu has bought. 

6| sekels of silver, its full price, he has paid. 

Date: Rim-Sin, Isin 10. 

The statement important for our investigation is contained in 
lines 1 and 2, namely, that there are 25 trees in this grove of 70 sars. 
Accepting Thureau-Dangin's calculations' of old Babylonian square 
measure, this surface would be a little less than half an acre. A 
distance of 30 feet between the trees would correspond to about 

1 Journal Asiatique. 1009. pp. 79 It.: 'L'U. le (Ja et la Mine." 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 221 

50 trees per acre. If it be permissible to draw conclusions from a 
single tablet, its testimony would tend to show that the Babylonians 
left such ample space between the trees as modern scientific date 
growers find it most advantageous to give. 

SECTION II 

' CARE REQUIRED BY DATE PALMS 

Before taking up the study of this topic from the standpoint of 
the cuneiform documents let us again first consult our modern 
authorities. As regards the care of the soil, Mr. Fairchild informs us 
that 

just before a plantation is set out with suckers the soil is dug over by hand 
to a depth of 18 inches, and this digging is repeated eveiy four years. Weed- 
ing is done when necessary and the surface of the ground occasionally stirred.' 
The chief care required by date palms is that they be irrigated as often 
as needful. The soil should be kept in proper state of tilth, which is usually 
done by growing some crop between the rows, especially when the palms are 
young. The leaves are trimmed off as they die, and care is taken not to 
allow too many offshoots to grow up at the base of the stem, for they draw 
on the strength of the parent plant. In general not more than three or 
four offshoots should be allowed to grow at once. At least one should 
always be left attached to the mother plant to be used to replace it in case 
of accident. Old palms, ten to fifteen years after planting, which have 
developed a good trunk 4^10 feet high, do not produce offshoots, and such 
trees require no attention other than the cutting away of dead leaves, the 
pollination of the flowers, and the gathering of the fruit.^ 

Having provided ourselves with these few elementary facts 
concerning the proper care of date palms, we are so much the better 
equipped for the task of discovering traces of these facts in the 
cuneiform texts. That the Babylonians thought it necessary to 
have the soil of their orchards dug over is evident from the following 
tablet: 

R23,^ transl. by Schorr, Altbabylonische Rechisurkunden, p. 189 

TRANSLITERATION 

1 . '«" kirum ma-la ba-zur-u 

2. i-na a-ah-hi "'''•" Puralli 

' Faircliild, op. cil., p. 19. 

2 Swingle, op. cit., p. 25. 

3 Ranke, Babylonian Legal and Burliness Documents, Scries .\, Vol. VI, Part I. 



222 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

3. itli su-lu-ur-lum 

4. maral '■'"■ i-lwm-ba-ni 

5. "■• u-?i-bi-tui/i 

6. mar pur- *'" adad 

7. ^^^kiram a-nasa-ka-nv-lim 

8. u-se-zi. 

9. ''" kiram i-ra-hi-ik 

10. a-ra-am zi-na-hmi 

11. i-na-^a-ar 

12. a-«a bi-ha-al '*" A-irtm 

13. i-za-az 

14. ma-na-ah-ti '^"kirim 

15. i-ma-ru-ma 

16. i-pa-al-su 

17. [ri-ib-ga-ti 
IS. i-ma-rii 

19. eklam ki-ma e.klim 

20. i-Ao-fli 

TRANSLATION 

A date orchard as much as there is, on the bank of the Euphrates, from 
Sukirtum, the daughter of Isum-bani, Usibitum, the son of Bur-Adad, has 
rented the orchard for caretaking. 

He shall spade the orchard; of the blossoms he shall take care; for 
any damage to the grove he will be held responsible. Any deterioration of 
the orchard they will estimate and he shall refimd; the spading they will 
inspect, field for field he will enjoy accordingly. 



NOTES 

Lines 7 and 8 : ana mkanutim. usezi, technical term for the renting of a date 
orchard, corresponding to ana irisidim itsezi in renting grainfields. 

Line 9: i-ra-bi-ik, according to Schorr from L pSI ; compare Aram. 
SECT'S pi"l = to spade a garden. Levy, Neuhebr. Worterbuch. , 

Line 10: ardin zinatum: these terms will be explained later in connection 
with the pollination of the date trees. 

Lines 14-16: Schorr translates, "Sobald er (sc. der Eigentumer) die Aus- 
lagen fiir den Garten geprilft haben wird, wird er sie ihm zuriick erstatten"; 
i.e., any expenses which the renter may have while taking care of the orchard 
will be refunded by the owner. This makes good reading but does not 
reproduce the original. First of all the owner is not a man; the verb should 
therefore have the feminine form if it referred to the owner. Secondly 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 223 

imdruma is plural and not singular. The sense undoubtedly is, that at the 
end of the period of renting the owner, either with witnesses or with the 
renter, will insiject the orchard, and if through the neglect of the renter 
any deterioration in the upkeep of the orchard has taken ijlace, the latter 
will have to restore the damage. Manahti from nSS has the meaning of 
ruin, decline, decay, etc.; cf. Delitzsch, HW. 

Lines 17-20: In like manner they will take note of the portion that has 
been spaded by the renter, and he will be entitled to the produce of that 
portion. This provision is found on the ease tablet only. 

The contract imposes two duties upon the sakinum: (1) he 
shall spade the garden, (2) he shall watch aram zinatum. This latter 
provision brings us, as we shall see, face to face with an operation 
that is of eminent importance in rational date culture, namely the 
process of artificial pollination. A thorough understanding of this 
process will, in the writer's opinion, throw light on some difficult 
passages in the Code and the contract literature. We must therefore 
take time to let our experts explain it to us. 

Unlike most fruit trees, the date palm has the male and female flowers 

on separate individuals In a wild state the date palm is undoubtedly 

pollinated by the wind, and about one-half of the trees are males 

The artificial pollination was doubtless discovered by the ancient Assyrians,' 
and has been practiced for three or four thousand years at least. Because 
of the great economy of pollen brought about by this practice, one male 
tree suffices to pollinate from fifty to a hundred females. The male flower 
cluster of the date jjalm consists of a stalk bearing a considerable number of 
short twigs to which the flowers are attached, the whole contained in a 
sheath at first entirely closed, but which finally ruptures, disclosing the 

flowers The separate twigs to which the male flowers are attached 

are from 4-6 inches long, and bear anywhere from 20-50 male flowers, each 
containing 6 anthers full of pollen. One of these twigs suffices to pollinate 
a whole female flower cluster, and to bring about the development of a 
bunch of dates. 

The female flowers, like the male, are Ijorne inside of sheaths which 
are at first entirely closed. Finally the sheath is split open by the growth of 
the flowers within, and at this stage ]3ollination is accomplished. The two 
tips of the cracked-open sheath are separated and the cluster of female 

' The author prohahly uses the term .Issi/ria/is in the loose sense iu which it was 
formerly employed, and included the inhabitants of the Tigris-Euphrates Delta, who were, 
of course, the date growers. 



224 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

flowers pulled out. A twig of male flowers is then inserted into a cluster 
of female flowers and tied in place with a bit of palm leaf or with a string. 
This completes the process of pollination.' 

Other facts which should be borne in mind are the following: 
(1) The female flower clusters do not all appear at the same time, 
but several weeks may elapse between the appearance of the first 
and the last clusters. During all this time the trees must be closely 
observed so that no female clusters may be overlooked. (2) Female 
flowers may appear at such an early or late date that no male trees 
are in bloom. Against this emergency the date grower could easily 
protect himself by storing away some male flower clusters, the pollen 
of which, it is said, does not deteriorate for at least two years. (3) A 
female flower cluster not pollinated will grow dates, but such dates 
are without seeds, they never properly mature, and are without 
commercial value.^ 

That artificial pollination of the date palm was practiced during 
the period of the AssjTian Empire is certain from monumental evi- 
dence.' For early Babylonia the case is not so clear. Scheil, as 
we have seen, made the inference that it was employed as early 
as 2400 B.C. If it was known in the days of Hammurabi, it would 
indeed be peculiar if his Code should be without any provision in 
regard to this important work. But there are still two paragraphs 
on date culture awaiting our investigation, namely, §§64 and 65. 
Both have caused the translators a lot of trouble. It will be well, 
therefore, to reproduce them here in transcription and translation 
as found in Harper's Code of Hammurahi, p. 33. 

§64 
transliteration 

sum-ma a-ivi-lum kird-su a-na Nu . Gis . Sar a-na ru-ku-bi-im id-di-in 
Nu . Gis . Sm- a-di kirum sa-ab-tu i-na hi-la-ai kirim si-U-li- in a-na he-el kirim 
i-na-ad-di-in sa-lu-us-tam su-u i-li-ki. 

TRANSLATION 

If a man give his orchard to a gardener to manage, the gardener shall 
give to the owner of the orchard two-thirds of the produce of the orchard, 
as long as he is in possession of the orchard; he himself shall take one-third. 

' Quoted from Swingle, op. cit., pp. 16, 26, 27. 

3 Swingle, op. cit., pp. 27-2S. 

* Cf. Guide to Babylonian and Aasyrian Antiquities (British Museum), 2d ed., PI. X. 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 225 

§65 

TRANSLITERATION 

sum-ma Nu . Gis . Sar kirdm la ti-ra-ak-ki-ib-ma bi-il-tam um-ta-di 
Nu . Gis . Sar bi-la-at kirtm a-n-a i-te-su li-ma-ad-da-ad\. 

TRANSLATION 

If the gardener do not properly manage the orchard, and he diminish 
the produce, the gardener shall measure out the produce of the orchard on 
the basis of the adjacent orchards. 

The important work which the gardener is to perform, and 
through the neglect of which he may seriou.sly diminish the produce 
of the date grove, is designated as " rukubum." The term is rendered 
by Harper to vianage; in this he is followed by Rogers. ' * Ungnad 
translates bewirtschaften;^ Winckler bearbeiten,^ which practically 
amounts to the same thing as the English translation above. These 
renderings, which are not even warranted by any of the meanings 
of the 1 2D"i , are too general and only a confession that the real 
significance of the term was not clear to the translators. Consulting 
Delitzsch, HW, p. 620, we find a secondary meaning for rakdbu 
which is expressed by the equations: 

Hi . Nir = r]a-ka-bu 
Hi . Nir = ri-hu-tu; 
also 

(a-a) A=rikibtnm 
(a-a) A=rihutum.* 

We may conclude, therefore, that some forms of rakdbu were em- 
ployed to designate the act of fecundation. This information does, 
howevet, not take us very far, though it may serve as a hint that 
we are on the right track. We are obliged to invoke the aid of the 
cognate languages. Turning to a dictionary of the Talmud,^ we 
make the discovery that I SS"! in the Hiphil may mean to graft, to 

' Rogers. Cuneifor/n Parallels, p. 417. 

2 Ungnad in Gressmann, AUorientalische Texte und Bilder, p. lh{). 

' Winckler in Der aUe Orient. Hett 4. 

* Cf. also Muss-Arnolt's Dictionary, p. 96:i. 

^ Levy, Neuhebr. titid chaUldisches WOrterbuch iibtr Talmnflim und Midrashim. 



226 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

place one branch upon another. Reference is made to a passage in the 
Babylonian Talmud, in which it is stated that it was lawful for the 
people of Jericho to graft date palms all day on the fourteenth of 
Nisan' (i.e., on the eve of Passover), because otherwise they would 
spoil. Evidently we are getting nearer the secret, for n ow there has 
been established at least a connection between the 1 --'^ and the 
date palm. Yet it must be remembered that the very nature of 
this tree makes grafting impossible and unnecessary. The date 
palm has no branches but only immense leaves, which, if they 
were grafted on another trunk, would never produce a fruit-bearing 
crown. Offshoots, however, are never grafted upon another trunk, 
but are transplanted as soon as they have obtained proper size, 
which is the safest and least complicated way of propagating a certain 
kind of date. Grafting is furthermore not an operation which 
could not be put off a few days longer. Considerations of this nature 
would lead to the belief that the process referred to is nothing but 
the pollination of the female flower clusters. 

But the Babylonian Talmud brings us still nearer the goal. 
Rabbi Rashi, commenting on the above jjassage, describes the 
abp-n i<ZT-^ as follows: "Z^ p-'ST^^ IjT bpi b'lT pT "^ 

--■i-y D-^:Tm mn-s n-cj? nr>5 nnpa bp-ia 'ds-^ "ap; bpi bz 

ni^"'S ,2 i.e., a soft branch (of the flower cluster) of the male date 
palm is placed in the split (of the flower cluster) of the female palm, 
because a female palm does not bear fruit, while a male does.^ 

After this excursion to the Talmud we should be justified to 
return to our deserted two paragraphs of the Code and insert in 
the place of "to manage," to pollinate. 

§ 64: If a man entrust his date grove to a sakinum for pollinating, the 
sakinum shall give of its produce, foi- the time that he holds the orchard, 
two-thirds to the owner of the orchard; one-third he himself shall take. 

§ 65: If the sakinum does not pollinate the orchard and thereby diminisii 
the produce, he shall pay rent on the basis of the adjacent orchards. 

2 Pes. 66». 

> The words in parentheses are inserted b.v tlio writer to sliow what really took place. 
Kashi evidently knew in a general way of the significance of pollination for the growing of 
dates, but was lacking in exact knowledge, as his statement, that the male palm was 
bearing fruit, shows. 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 227 

Among the contracts concerning rent of date groves one of the 
most interesting is doubtless 

VS, VIP^ 

TRANSLITERATION 

1. 'f''kiru7n ''"Amurru 

2. v^ar a-ra-ah-tum 

3. u-at-ru-ium 

4. « ta-lu sa li-bu ek-lim ? 

5. '■^'^ kiri hu-ra-za-tum 

6. illi hu-ra-zor-tum 

7. '" a-pil i-li-su 

8. mar '" urci^-mii-ba-li-it 

9. a-7in sa-ki-nu-tim 

10. [76] .Ta.E .A 

11. \'f'^ki\ram ■u-ra-ka-ah-ma 

12. [si-it\-ii-in 

13. he-el 'f'^kiiim 

14. [sa]-lu-us-ta-am 

15. sa-ki-nu-um 

16. i-Zi-fci 

17. V bi-la-tim u-ri-e 

18. X si-si-iia-tim 

19. i-na-ad-di-in 

TR.\NSLATI0N 

A date grove of the god Amurru, in the field of the Arahtum-[canal],^ 
(there are) dry leaves and off.?hoots, — the date grove of Hurazatum, from 
Hurazatum, Apil-ilisu, the son of UraJ-mubaUt, has rented for caretaking. 
He shall polhnate the orchard ; two-thirds (of the produce) the owner of the 
garden, one-third the renter shall take. 

Five talents of ure, ten male flower clusters he shall give (besides). 

NOTES 

Lines 3 and 4, probably best construed as an inserted nominal sentence, 
descriptive of the condition of the orchard, and calling attention to the 
work required of the gardener; u-at-ru-tum, lit. "superfluous ones," very 
likely refers to dead leaves. AVith u-at-rvrlum compare neo-Babylonian 
ftorattu >Talmudic Xr^^r; = a dried branch. Ta-lu sa li-bu: Sum. ^'"^Gisim- 
mar . Tur . Tur = talu = liplipu = lipu = oSshoot; Uterally therefore the above 
term signifies "offshoots of offshoots." Compare with this Mr. Swingle's 
statement that 

the offshoots, when uncontrolled, grow unhindered, and rival in size the 
parent trunk, and they in turn give rise to other offshoots, so that finally 
the result is an impenetrable thicket with a few tall trunks, and a tangled 
mass of offshoots at the base; op. cil., p. 15. 



228 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

Lines 11-16 contain almost verbatim the provisions of § 64 of the Code. 

Line 17: ure must be left untranslated at present; it doubtless refers 
to one of the extremely numerous by-products of the date palm. 

Line 18: si-si-na-tim = sissinntum and sissinnu, plur. col. of st[)7]-nu = 
cluster of date blossoms (Datlelrispe) ; cf. Delitzsch, HW, and Muss-Arnolt, 
p. 775, for references. Our contract helps us to identify the sissinnu, not 
with the flower cluster in general, but with the male blossom in particular. 
The renter is to deliver ten of them to the owner, and since the pollen can 
be kept for years against a case of emergency this stipulation becomes clear. 
Compare also the cases cited inJVIuss-Arnolt, p. 775: sis-sin-na-su vl e-tir = 
its male clusters he shall not taCe; or sis-sin-ni i-na-as-si = the male clusters 
shall be brought, i.e., to the owner. 

One more tablet should be more closely inspected, namely: 
VS, VII", transl. by Schorr, 191, KU, III, 661 

TRANSLITERATI ON 

1. XI gan ejclum '■^'"kirum 

2. sa pn-la-ag ''" f/ros 

3. itii e-U-e-ri-sa marut na-hi-annum 

4. "■ la-ri-bu-um u-se-zi 

5. li-ib-ba-am si-na-am 

6. i-na-sa-ar 

7. um '""siduppi {Ka . Lum) 

8. i-na i-li-im 

9. su-ku-na-a?n 

10. i-sa-kor-nu-su 

11. 1 gan eklum Ka . Gar 

12. samassanimum ma-la 

13. i-ba-su-u 

14. sa-lu-m-ta-sa 

15. i-na-ad-di-si-im 

TRANSLATION 

Eleven gan field, date orchard, of the Uras-canal, from Eli-erisa, daughter 
of Nal)i-annum, Taribum has rented. He will take care of the poUination. 
At the time of date harvest, besides the produce of the orchard of which 
he took care, he shall give her from one gan of his usufruct {eklum Ka . Gar ) 
sesame, as much as there is, her one-third. 

NOTES 

■ Lines 5 and 6: libbcim sindm ina^ar; libbu"'^ G'isimmari = \it. the heart, i.e., 
the crowni or leaf tuft of the date palm, which, as we know, constitutes its 
very life. The above expression is therefore evidently only a circumlocution 
for rukkubum, "he shall take care of (pollinate) the blossoming trees." 
The same is true of the phrase found above in R23, a-ra-am zi-na-tum 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 229 

i-na-sa-ar. Delitzsch, HW, equates arum with the date flower s (D attel- 
bliite). It seems, however, more satisfactory to stay with the l/r!15< from 
which the forms a-ni-u and u-ru-u are derived, which, according to 
Dehtzsch, denote "something done to a tree or forest . . . . but what?" 
HW, p. 130. But the most common meaning of the V HIS is to he or to 
become pregnant. Would it be too bold a speculation to venture an answer 
to the above question of Delitszch and translate the phrase in question "of 
the fecundation of the blossoms he shall take care" ? 

Lines 8-15: They are interesting in so far as they show how the renter 
was remunerated. The produce (sukunnum) of the orchard of which he 
took care (i-sakamisti) evidently went to the owner, but he received the 
secondary- crop, with the exception of one-third of the sesame from one 
gan, which the landlady demanded for herself. I-na i-li-im (besides or 
above) is mistaken by iSchorr for ina ilipu, and therefore translated "at 
the time when the offshoots will bear." — Babylonische Rechtsurkunden, p. 191. 

In another type of contracts a fixed amount of dates is required 
as rent for an orchard. In this manner the owner protected himself 
against any diminished return from his grove through the negligence 
of the renter. The owner's demand had to be satisfied first, and the 
rest of the produce remained for the gardener. A contract of this 
type is represented in 

VS, XIII ■« (Date: Hammurabi 23) 

TRANSLITERATION 

1. 4| gur suluppi 

2. 2i gur suluppi idam)cuti[?]) 

3. naphar 61 gur suluppi E . A 

4. 10 biltam u-ru-u 

5. 10 biltam zi-zi-na-tum 

6. 2X60+30+1 '^" gihimmare 

7. biltam ''" kirim 

8. sa "^ mUf-na-iDi-ir-tum 

9. marat na-bi ^'"sattias i 

10. ™ ibik-iltum{tum) 

11. mdr i-ku-(:un)-bi-sa{?) 

12. is-ba-at 

13. warah kislimum 

14. i-na bdb ga-gi-im 

15. gis-bar ''"samas Ni . Ram . E 

16. 10 biltam Ur-ruru 

17. 10 biltam zi-zi-nor-tum 

18. la-bi-ir-ta-'su 

19. i-na-ad-di-in 



230 The American Journal of Semitic Languages 

translation 

4i gur of dates 2^ gur of dates a total of di gur of dates rent. 

10 talents of ure. 10 talents of flower clusters (of) 251 date palms, rent of the 

orchard of Munawirtiim, daughter of NabiSamas, which , son of 

, has taken. 

In the month of Kislimum, in the gate of the temple compound, he shall 
pay according to standard measure of the Samas temple. Ten talents of 
ure, ten talents of flower clusters, his former dues, he shall give. 

NOTES 

Line 3: E . A^susA, very likely rent (Abgahe). This document, which 
is designated in the index to VS, XIII, as a Darlehen (loan), is nevertheless 
clearly a contract concerning the rent of an orchard. For .similar contracts 
see VS, VII«, VS, VII'«, VS, VI^^ Th.D. 226. 

Lines 10 f.: Cf. Ranke, BE, VI, Pt. I, "Concordance of Proper Names." 

In summing up the results of our investigation of Old Babylonian 
documents pertaining to date culture, it might be stated that the 
inferences and conclusions of V. Scheil as stated in the introduction 
have been verified by direct evidence from the Hamnmrabi period. 
Above all, artificial pollination was a well-known process, and legally 
covered by at least two paragraphs of the Code. In other respects 
the Code gave legal sanction to time-honored customs which had been 
foniied during many centuries in which the inhabitants of the 
Euphrates-Tigris Delta had enjoyed the blessings of this remarkable 
tree. Through them a high degree of efficiency was attained, and 
the interests of both the owner and renter were safeguarded. 

SUPPLEMENT 

DATE CULTURE AS AN ECONOMIC FACTOR 

The date palm possesses in a high degree the love and esteem of 
those for whom it pro\ades sustenance. The number of uses to which 
the tree and its products can be put is phenomenal ; a Persian poem 
praises enthusiastically 365 ways in which it proves itself the bene- 
factor of man. Strabo characterizes its usefulness to the Baby- 
lonians as follows: "All other wants (besides that of grain) are 
supplied by the date palm." Assyrian monuments are often pictur- 
ing their soldiers in the act of cutting down and destroying the 
date groves of besieged or captured cities. These ruthless warriors 



Date Culture in Ancient Babylonia 231 

knew that by this act they woulil deal a death blow to the economic 
life of their enemiesT] Another witness to the high esteem in which 
the date palm was held in ancient Babylonia is the Code itself. 
See §59, which decrees that "if a man, without the consent of the 
owner of an orchard, cut a tree in that man's orchard he shall pay 
one-half mina of silver." This extremely heavy fine was, of course, 
calculated to protect this beneficent tree from any would-be despoiler. 
The temptation to such a theft, no doubt, was verj^ serious in a 
country which produced no other kind of lumber. 

In an attempt to estimate the productivitj' of Babylonian date 
groves we are almost entirely dependent upon the material used bj' 
Scheil in the article referred to above. The orchard described on the 
Nippur fragment shows by far the better record. If we disregard 
the series of trees of 25 ka, for which the number is missing, it would 
contain 239 trees; the entire number may have been something like 
250 trees. With an average of 50 trees per acre the size of the orchard 
would amount to about five acres, or 600 sar. The total produce of 
dates, calculated from the scribe's estimate, would be 56|- gur. The 
record grove on the Umma tablet contains 341 trees with an esti- 
mated yield of 26 gur 185 ka. The total for the various groves 
mentioned on this tablet is 1,332 trees, with an estimated yield of 
61 gur 154 ka. The highest yield per tree in the Umma orchards is 
60 ka, while in the Nippur grove of the entire number of c. 250 trees 
there are 104 bearing more than 60 ka, seven trees yielding as high 
as one gur per tree. The impression which one gains from the Umma 
tablet is that it deals with young plantations; especially the rather 
high percentage of unproductive young trees favors this conclusion. 

The maximum yield in the Nippur grove is one gur per tree from 
a series of seven. This would correspond to about 105 kilograms 
(c. 210 pounds) if the value of the ka is taken to equal .47 liters. 
Mr. V. Scheil regards this to be an extremely light yield when com- 
pared with modern figures, which often show double that amount. 
Should we, however, accept the value of the ka to be .81 liters, as 
more recently proposed by Thureau-Dangin (Revue d'Assyriologie, 
1912, p. 24), then this discrepancj' would disappear.^ On this basis 

' The writer notices that this value has been accepted by recent French writers on 
economic topics. It is especially in the realm of agriculture proper that a value higher 
than .47 liters seems to be almost imperative. 



232 



The American Journal oi- Seiutic Languages 



the highest j'ield would be c. 365 pounds, a figure which would still 
be very moderate, since, according to Mr. Swingle, a yield of from 400- 
600 pounds is not infrequent with rich soil and abundant irrigation 
(op. cit., p. 24). 

For the Hammurabi period there is only the above-cited contract 
VS, XIIP' that could be drawn upon for making comparisons. The 
251 trees mentioned are evidently the number of date palms found 
in the orchard. If the 6|- gur of dates constitute about two-thirds 
of the produce, which the owner could legally demand for himself, 
then the entire yield was estimated about 10 gur of dates, plus the 
various by-products. This yield equals nearly. that of the third lot 
on the Umma tablet, where 291 trees are estimated with 12 gur 
218 ka, which would give for 250 trees an average of a little more than 
10 gur. 

There is still another way of arriving at an estimate of the eco- 
nomic importance of ^ate culture, namely, by comparing the sales 
value of farm land with that of date orchards. For this purpose 
Volume VS, XIII proves a regular storehouse of information, for not 
less than twelve orchard .sales are recorded. Comparing the average 
sales price of these orchards with the average value of farm lands 
during this period we will find that the former brought at least double 
the amount of the latter: 



VS, XIII Nu. 


Pi'o.venl- 
euce 


Number 31 


Sip par 


Xiunber 57 


Senkereh 




Senkcri-h 


Nun Jier 74 


Sieokcreh 


Xunber 7S 


Si'iikcreii 


Xuii'ltcr NO 


Senkficli 


\unil)Or' .SI 


Senkereh 


Niiii'.bor .S7 


Seiikereli 


N limbec V/'i 


Senkereh 


Xuni-btT 1)4 


.^cnkereh 


NumboT !)S 


"^enl.ereh 


Number 9'.( 


Sr,,!,, r -Ii 



Arroimt 
of Land 



Price 



Ri'ice per 
100 Sars 



Haninturabi 40 ? 
Rim-Pin. Isin 2 
Risr-Sin. Lsin 2 
Rim-Sin, Isin 7 
l<im-.*in, lsin 8 
Rvm-Siu. Isin 10 
Kini-Sin. Isin 12 
Rim-Sin. Isin 'JO 
Rim-Sin 
Rim-Sin 
Ri'n->in 



.'> .sar 

100 sar 

70 sar 

00 sar 

:-{l sar 

'.m sar 

100 sar 

90 sar 

l?,\) sar 

s.iO sar 

LMKi sai- 

i::(i sal- 



1 h gekEls 
7i S3l<els 

t<-, sekels 
OJ sskels 
(i| sekels 
21 sekels 
10' iSekels 
1 y sekels 
14i sekel3 
12 sekels 
2r> sekels 
14 J sekels 



30 sekels 

7j sekels 

c. Gj .Sekels 

C-. loj Sekels 

e. 20 sekels 

2:' J sekeU 

10 sekeU 

c. 21 .sekels 

c. 11 sekels 

c. a 5?kels 

12* sekels 

c. 11' sekels 



.\.verage price of orcliards 



= 14 sekels per 100 sare 
= 252 sekels per 1800 sars 
.Vverage price paid for farm lauds, 
computed from 22 sales = 113j sekels per ISOO sars 



The value of date orchards is therefore more than double that 
of common farm land. 



LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 



000 918 053 9 



